More RV-Dreams Rally

We gave our Picasa seminar yesterday.  Here’s the collage we made during class:

If you use Picasa and don’t know how to make collages like this, our ‘Show-Me-How’ Video on Collages happens to be one of our free ones, so check it out.

Today we give our ‘Every RVer Needs a Blog’ class.  I don’t expect a large turnout on this one because so many people here already have a blog!  We’ll try to get into some of the advanced stuff (like using Live Writer), but we promise that anyone can make a blog after attending this class, so we keep it focused on beginners.

Here are some of the blogs of people here at the rally.  These links are to the main blog page – to see entries about the rally you need to be looking at the April 7-11 2010 time frame.

• www.frerxadventures.com
• http://myrddinstravels.blogspot.com/
• http://tumbleweed-jimdee.blogspot.com/
• http://www.kram-a-lotinn.blogspot.com/
• www.rvjourneys.blogspot.com
• http://wanderingsylville.blogspot.com/
• www.travelwithwhippets.blogspot.com

RV-Dreams Rally

We made it to Longs, SC and the RV-Dreams rally.  Linda and Howard Payne started the fulltime RV lifestyle in 2005 and started the RV-Dreams.com website to go along with it.  They have developed quite a following and this is their third annual rally.  We attended the first one in Branson, MO in 2008.

Their enthusiasm for the lifestyle and for having fun with their many friends is contagious.

I know it’s a lot of work to put on a rally, but they don’t let it stop them from enjoying themselves.

A lot of the rally is seminars about the fulltime lifestyle.  Many people come here because they are thinking about becoming fulltime RVers – it’s a great way to learn.  We’re doing 3 of our seminars: Internet on the Road, Managing Digital Photos with Picasa, and Every RVer Needs a Blog.  We had two whole hours for our Internet seminar yesterday and we used every minute of it!  The choices have increased so much over the last couple years. 

The second night’s gathering was all about gadgets.  Attendees were encouraged to ‘show and tell’ their favorite items.  I especially liked this silly invention that allows toilet paper to roll from the top *or* the bottom just by a swivel.

Here’s Mom and Jim walking over to the meeting hall.  Except for a storm in the night – we’ve had great weather.

See the RV-Dreams Blog for more.

Charleston, SC

I really shouldn’t title this post Charleston – we didn’t see much.  All we did was pass thru.  But, we did stop and took a water taxi ride.  Pretty cool way to spend a couple hours. 

A public area with museum, aircraft carrier exhibit, and boat tours are all located at a place called Patriots Point.  It was right on our route – so we stopped to see if there was anything we could do with just a couple hours.

Water Taxi!  Cool.

What a nice view this gave us of the bridge over Charleston Harbor.

We had a nice lunch at East Bay Deli, and walked a few blocks on Charleston’s streets.

Then we got back on the Water Taxi and finished the circle of the harbor.

 

I had wanted to take a tour of Fort Sumter - the little island in Charleston Harbor where the Civil war began. We didn't have time for that, but we did see it:

A beautiful day.  Then we continued on our way and made it to Longs, SC and the RV-Dreams rally.

St. Augustine

We only have one day here, and it’s beautiful weather, so we figured on going in to St. Augustine and taking the standard trolley tour.  As Mom and I were walking Odie around the RV park in the morning, a woman came out of her RV waving some paper at us and asking if we were staying for the day.  Turns out she had tickets for the Trolley that she couldn’t use as they had to leave.  That’s the way this lifestyle is – magic moments just string together.

So, we were off to the Trolley tour to see the oldest city in the United States. 

The Fort – Castillo San Marcos:

The historic hotel, now Flagler College:

 

Inviting eating and drinking establishments

The ‘Mile Zero’ marker for the Spanish Trail – St. Augustine to San Diego.

And, a special treat – the Easter Parade:

The main reason we stopped here for a day was to see our friend Glenn, who lives not too far away in South Jacksonville.  We got to see his new office setup … he ‘out-geeks’ us by a longshot!

Then we went to dinner at a great place on the water – Clark’s Fish Camp.  There’s *lots* of water around Jacksonville with the St. Johns river and all its tributaries.

We’re off today headed for Charleston, SC.  We’ll only have one night there as we need to be at the RV-Dreams rally on Tuesday – it’s not far from Charleston in Longs, SC.

Housecleaning in an RV

There’s nothing like having your mother come stay with you for a while to get you to clean your home! 

I don’t think our little vacuum cleaner has come out of its hiding place since the last time she was here.

Neither Jim nor I are very high on housekeeping.  In fact, I think that was one of my reasons for wanting to live in an RV rather than a house.  I figured – a space that small – how much work can it be?  Truly, in a couple hours you can clean front to back, top to bottom.  What I didn’t count on is how quickly it gets dirty again.  Every square inch is in heavy traffic pattern! 

I also can’t hire someone to clean my RV like I would do sometimes to clean my house.  I mean, how can I stay out of their way while they clean!?

Anyway, our plan to have my Mom come with us to the RV-Dreams rally in South Carolina was a good motivator to get the floor washed and waxed, clean the air filter for the AC, clean windows and mirrors, and throw away or put away all the piles of paper. 

Aaaaaahhhh.  Now we spent a few hours on the road, and Mom’s in her favorite spot – the mother-in-law suite in the cabover

:

We made it to St. Augustine and will stay here two nights while we see some sights and visit our friend Glenn.  It’s a nice campground – I was entranced by the golden light just before sundown.

 

The temperature was perfect for dinner outside.  This is the life we love.